Cristiano Ronaldo’s Star Fails to Attract Bond Investors to Juventus

Juventus Football Club SpA’s debut bond offering showed that the allure of star player Cristiano Ronaldo only stretches so far.

The Italian soccer giant barely changed the pricing in its five-year debt sale on Wednesday and the orderbook was no more than 50 percent larger than the 175 million-euro ($200 million) deal size. The final yield of 3.5 percent was in line with the initially marketed target range, according to a person familiar with the matter, who isn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified

Juventus, which signed five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo last year, isn’t the first soccer team to enter debt markets. Local rival Inter Milan and England-based Manchester United have also accessed bond markets for financing.

Turin-based Juventus has dominated Italian soccer in recent years, finishing last season with a seventh consecutive domestic league title and a fourth straight win in the Italian Cup. The 120-year-old club was also the topic of a Netflix TV series.